This is an easy recipe to make a Regular Light Milk Cheese, which is a soft cheese. Depending how you wish to use your cheese will dictate which, if any, flavorings you wish to add while making your Milk Cheese. (for more flavouring ideas and information on how to make other cheeses—such as Boursin, creama cheese, cottage cheese— including more recipes using these home made or store bought cheese for icings, spreads, cakes, etc: go to the “Recipe” Category in this betweenclosefriends.com Blog)
- Place 4 ½ cups of milk in a medium sized saucepan. Carefully warm the milk over medium heat, stirring frequently to reach 98 degrees F on a cooking thermometer.
- Remove from the warmed milk from the heat, then stir in 2 tsp of rennet.
- Leave it to rest for 1 to 2 hours until the milk has separated into a clear liquid and a solid curd.
- Slowly tip the curd into a clean piece of muslin and hang the muslin to drain overnight. (The whey that drains from the curd makes a refreshing drink, or can be used for a face wash for very sensitive skin. My mother, who has very youthful looking skin, swears by the use of whey as her facial wash.)
- If the curd is still too moist, place the muslin wrapped curd in a colander for 1 hour, lightly weighting it with a plate to drain off more whey and form a more solid soft cheese.
Some popular flavorings for soft cheeses—Gently stir in any of the following combinations to your homemade cheese after removing the heated milk from the stove in step 2, above.
— Chopped lemon thyme, borage and sweet cicely leaves or seeds, garnishing the finished cheese with a small handful of the beautiful purple borage flowers.
— 2 T of the juice pounded from marigold petals, then strained.
— ¼ tsp fresh grated nutmeg, ½ tsp freshly grated (or ground) cinnamon and a pinch of ground cloves.
— Bruised Bergamot or scented geranium leaves. Add the leaves in step 1, and remove them in step 3. Alternately, tear the leaves into small pieces, add them in step one, and leave them in the soft cheese for an added visual and flavour boost.